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2014-06-08 - Intruder Alert
Things have been relatively quiet lately for the Watchtower and those on monitor duty. Ted Kord had monitor duty last week and reported nothing out of the norm. Hawkman took a turn earlier in the week and mentioned some weapons shipments out of Khandaq and Queen Bee buzzing some satellites. Wally's taking a turn now. For the Fastest Man Alive, Monitor Duty is torture. It's a necessary activity but for someone routinely living between the ticks of a clock, it can feel like an eternity when it's quiet. Luckily or Unluckily for The Flash, things are not quiet. Hours into his shift at monitor duty, computers mentioned a hull breach in the docking bay. Seconds after the report, Wally was in the docking bay. He was greeted by the forces of decompression as atmosphere was being sucked out through the breach. A couple of the League's docked craft were being dragged roughly towards the breach. At the moment, Wally's tapped into the Speedforce and he's hurriedly trying to patch the breach in order to investigate the cause. Working feverishly at a computer, a few rooms away from the breach, Batman was punching in keys. It was his money that helped finance the satelite. It was his company that secretly prepared blueprints to the place. In theory the one that knew the most about the base was the Dark Knight. Deep down he was putting in the order to raise defenses. The hope was to have the armoring plug the hole until Flash could patch it up properly. No one was going to be able to get in or out, but there would be no chance for the scarlet speedster to get sucked into the vaccuum of space. The League couldn't loose the most unpredictable member. As annoying as he could have been, The Flash was a necessary wild card. "Hold on," Batman spoke into a headset that fed into speakers of the docking bay. Welders, Rivets and even hammers appear and disappear from the Speedster's hands as he deals with the breach. A scarlet and gold blur centered around the breach stops. Wally is breathing heavily and he shakes his head, "Oh. Right. Oxygen." A final blur of motion and Wally suddenly has a small emergency oxygen tank and a mask covering his mouth and nostrils. His muffled voice responds to the Dark Knight, "I think I've got the inner layer taken care of, Batman." As he reports back to Batman, he turns his head to regard the vehicles that had slid out of their docking moors. He humphs, "Guess I'm going to get my hands greasy giving these things a once over for damage." "Hawkman and others can take care of the outer. You'll burn through your oxygen suit if you try to use your speed to repair it. What happened?" Batman asked as he was looking up readouts of the satelite and hoping there wasn't any more holes elsewhere. The last thing anyone needed was to be floating in space before the base ripped itself apart due to breaches. So far so good, but the searching had only just begun. The Fastest Man Alive briefly taps into the Speedforce in an effort to zip around the docking bay in a typical search pattern. He skids to a stop, his wake kicking up random debris that didn't get sucked outside behind him. The Flash speaks into his comm, "The nature of the breach didn't seem structural. The metal and alloy were bent inward as if something punctured through the hull." He raises a hand to rub at the back of his head, "Can't- hold on." The cause of Wally's hesitation are the objects that reveal themselves to him. Half a dozen football-shaped foreign objects occupied the docking bay with him. The football-shaped objects had a smooth, sleek surface with large depressions at their 'front' end with a green-colored crystaline feature. These objects were the size of a football, but somehow expanded and tripled in size. Wally says, "Internal sensors picking up anything funky, Batman? We've got some unknowns in here. Robotic? Alien?" A wide beam of green light washes over Wally from a couple of the floating footballs. "Scanners are saying they're alien in design, not natural. They're inanimate but so are robots until someone activates them. Remember that," he said as his fingers pressed more keys. Looking over the monitors he took a handheld scanner. Looking over the room he wanted to check the oxygen levels. Sure, he was going to join Wally but he wanted to be sure an oxygen wasn't required first. Walking over to grab a tank he prepped it as a precaution. Moving back to the computer, "Flash. What are you seeing on them? Designs? Inscriptions?" They needed to know the origin of these things. Maybe it was a clue to who sent them. The Scarlet Speedster keeps rubbing the back of his head, "Not seeing anything to indentify them. No words, symbols, logos. Don't remember seeing these in the computer files." The beam of green light stops and the objects start moving about the docking bay in, seemingly, random patterns. Green light arcs out and wash over various areas of the docking bay until two of the beams land on one of the League's shuttles. Wally states, "They're certainly moving around a lot; Seem quite animated." Again more scanners, Batman was trying to figure out the source of the light. Maybe a spectral graph would have given a clue to origin. Usually Green Light meant a green lantern ring. Now there was some mysterious light coming from these objects. He was waiting for graphs before feeding the Speedster answers. "Stay sharp. We don't know the nature of the light." After the shuttle was washed with the green light, the other floating alien footballs converged on the vehicle. Wally shakes his head, "Hey, I haven't given it a check up yet." He doesn't expect an answer from the devices. Wally says over the radio to Batman, "They're real interested in a shuttle, Batman." The footballs' green light stops as they all orbit around the vehicle. Eventually they descend on the shuttle and connect to hit. A tell-tale magnetic clasp can be heard moments after each football makes contact. Batman will be able to tell through the computers that the shuttle is powering up. Leaving the room Batman was in full stride. He was readying a few batarangs. They carried an electrical charge so they should have acted like a small EMP or caused a temporary shut down. There was only four, so each shot had to count. Even if the current just cut the magnetic tie...that would have been enough. Once in the docking bay he lept into the air and tossed a batarang, "Disconnect the pods. Seperate them when you do. Seal them away so they can't attach to anything mechanical." The last part was the bigger issue. Both heroes were in a place that was made livable entirely by eletronics. Still, they had a few pockets for hazardous materials thanks to powered up items and people. Today these spots were going to be containment units. The batarang chops through the air after Batman's arrival into the docking bay. With practiced accuracy, the batarang strikes home and transfers his electric charge into the football-shaped device. The transfer of electricity is momentarily as the carapace of the device is strong enough to withstand the batarang inbedding itself into it. The electricty is enough to remove the magnetic seal and it slips off the shuttle. Following directives, the Flash moves with an alacrity matched by only a handfull of Earthlings. Wally catches the device before it touches the ground. A couple of seconds are taken to run his hands over the device at superspeed. Deft fingers attempt to find weaknesses, openings or panels for him to access on the alien device. When he finds nothing apparent, he stops and calls out to Batman, "Got it; The shell on these things is seamless. All one piece." The shuttle's activation is complete and the craft slowly lurches up off of the docking bay floors. The five remaining footballs seem to not need the sixth in order to do whatever it is they intend to do with the shuttle. "Got it," Batman said to Flash's observation. Running to the vehicle he jumped on top of it and went to a fuse box. Pulling out an item from the utility belt he held a tool to try and pry the panel open. One advantage to being the main financer was knowing some of the eletronics and capability to items available. What Batman was looking for was a main line to a generator. Either the ship would power down due to no power, or if the wire could be pulled out maybe something could have been applied to a football or two. Once inside he began to pull at wires and brough up one and held it carefully. The closest football had it pressed against it. As he pressed it to the item he jumped up to avoid any shock himself. The Football in Wally's arms starts to shudder and shiver in an effort to get out of the Scarlet Speedster's grasp. The Flash shifts and moves his hands at superspeed to counter any movements the football makes to escape. After several seconds of this, the device changes its tactics. The green energy it was previously sweeping around the room is activated as a tighter beam of light. The focused beam lances out at the Flash's chest and sends the Fastest Man Alive flipping backwards under the external force. The device drops to the metallic floor of the docking bay. With Batman ontop of the shuttle now, the vehicle wavers with the added weight. It wavers more when the Dark Knight rips open the fuse box and forces various cables and cords to lose their connection. With the electrical network broken, the shuttle drops down heavily onto the floor. The loud clang of metal on metal is deafening and the jostling mixed with the electricity directed at another of the footballs is enough to dislodge it from the ship. The shuttle is down. The remaining footballs attached to the shuttle remove their magnetic seals and hover off of the hull. A quick motion causes Batman to fling another Batarang at one of the footballs. Two more left to use. Then seeing something he flings three regular ones at the hovering part of another device. He wondered if the blow back would destroy or disable these things. Maybe these floating objects had a type perpulsion system that could be used against them. "Keep going," Batman wanted Flash to keep running the objects in places they couldn't do any damage. Again, necessary wild card. Wally landed from the blast of green energy in a three-point stance. A slight touch of the Speedforce is made by the Flash in an effort to quicken his recovery from the blast. To non-Speedsters it would appear that Wally wasn't even phased by being blasted by the football. Moving from the three-point stance, Wally's a blur of scarlet and gold. He intercepts the football that blasted him and absconds it to a stasis chamber deeper in the Watchtower. Less than a minute later, Flash returns and skids to a stop feet from another Football that Batman electricuted. He disappears with that one as well. The regular batarangs appear to do nothing to the floating footballs. The three that remain in the air appear to dodge the projectiles. Each one of their green crystals brighten and a focused beam of energy lances out at the Dark Knight. Seeing the beams of light head toward him he lept upward. Simple plan, get them to fire at each other. Landing between a few of them for a second he waited for the beams to come at him before he rolled away. This wasn't too bad, but it required him to keep moving, stay on his toes. Jumping up again he turned his body mid-air and flung three batarangs. Two were regular, did nothing, but he was trying to gode the latest target into moving in line so the third would connect. The third was one of the eletrical charged ones. Hopefully there was going to be one left after the last two attacks. The G. D. Batman's efforts are remarkable but the devices, despite achieving a crossfire, do not take one another out with their green beams of coherent light. When the devices are in each others' sights they stop firing. The electrified batarang, though, works again. The electrical charge is enough to affect the alien device's electrical impulses and its falls towards the ground. Wally arrives in a flash and catches the falling device before it collides with the ground. Wally holds the device in both hands and shakes it at superspeed in an effort to rattle something inside of it loose. Flash asks, "You ok, Batman?" just before darting around the docking bay and grabbing another fallen device. He slams the two of them together before zipping off towards the stasis chambers. Two remain and those two decide to fly up and away from Batman towards the elevators. Moving after the devices Batman yelled a command, "Mannual override. Batman. Elevator shutdown. Mark 22789." The software was voice recognition and a tip he held close to the chest. A few of the league members knew of the codes incase something really bad happened. As the bots were focused on the elevator he tossed out the last two batarangs. Hopefully they were two distracted by making it further to see the last two projectiles coming. If not maybe Flash could have done a vibrator trick to remove some circuitry in the devices. One of the two batarangs strike home. The electrical discharge drops the floating alien device. The remaining alien device happened to move in a way that coincidentally allows it to avoid the electrical discharge of the batarang. The Flash returns in a streak of red and yellow. He sees the alien devices, one floating and one falling. He dives at superspeed to catch the falling one. He tumbles and rolls before righting himself in a way that he's standing in a three-point crouch with the big football tucked under his arm. It looks like for all the world Wally noogies the device at superspeed. A smoking crater formed at the point of impact. The Flash kicks off the ground and leaps to intercept the remaining active device. These intruders are whisked away to the League's stasis chambers. Batman became still and moved slowly to the elevator, "I'll examine the one you made a crater inside." Yes, the Dark Knight was going to peek and see what made these things tick. He gave the Flash a nod. This was the closest thing the speedster would get to a thank you. "Elevator. Engage. Mark," and he rattled off the number. The elevators were going to be online in a few moments. Quietly Batman just saw his way to the room he was in a few doors down. The Flash hears Batman's words over the comm because, at this point, he's sealing the stasis chamber. He raises a gloved hand to his cowl and taps his commlink, "They're all in stasis for you, Batman. I think touching base with J'onn, Superman or Ted-" He means Kord, "-to butt heads over this. They appear high tech." The Flash leaves the stasis room and makes sure he logs the new additions into the computer's inventory log. He says over the comm, "I'll look over the shuttles, especially the one they interfaced with, and see what I can do about fixing them." "It will need work. I disabled the main powerline from the ship -after- they attached. The ship may need a new engine. It will be fixed." Walking to the elevator Batman went inside it and shut the door. The Flash wasn't going to be in the examining room.